Sacred Texts: Buddhism

Buddhism in Translations - § 26. Ignorance.

Henry Clarke WarrenPali Canon TranslationsTheravada Buddhism

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This is a scholarly Buddhist doctrinal text, specifically an excerpt from the *Visuddhimagga* (Path of Purification) by Buddhaghosa, a 5th-century Theravāda commentarial work drawing on the Pāli Canon (Sutta-Piṭaka and Abhidhamma-Piṭaka). The passage provides a systematic analysis of *avijjā* (ignorance) as a core concept within the doctrine of Dependent Origination (paṭicca-samuppāda), defining it as lack of knowledge concerning the Four Noble Truths plus four additional categories (anteriority, posteriority, their combination, and dependent co-arising). A distinctive argument is made against treating ignorance as a causeless primordial principle—explicitly rejecting any analogy to the Sāṃkhya *prakṛti*—while simultaneously explaining why it legitimately serves as a narrative starting-point for teachings on the "Wheel of Existence" (saṃsāra). The text develops a two-root model in which ignorance generates karma leading to unhappy rebirths, while desire for existence generates karma leading to happy rebirths, illustrated through vivid cattle analogies. It concludes with the claim that the Wheel of Existence is beginningless, has no external creator (contra Brahma), lacks a permanent self as experiencer, and is "empty with a twelvefold emptiness"—making the passage valuable for readers interested in classical Theravāda metaphysics, dependent origination, and the Buddhist critique of both self-theories and creator-god doctrines.

Buddhism in Translations - § 26. Ignorance.

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